Beauty And The Muslimah: brushes

Products I've Been Loving Recently

I can't be the only one that finds it difficult to do Monthly Favourites right? I chop and change my products every day and generally love almost everything that I own in my stash, so when I find products that work well for me or suit a specific purpose, I tend to stick to it for a while, either until I get bored or I find something new. They might be random products but they will become firm favourites for sure.

Here I have a selection of random-ish products and techniques that I've been using over and over again recently and I wanted to share them with you.

I'll start off with Base Products:

EX1 Foundation in F200 (full review here), I'm seriously loving this foundation at the moment, I adore the colour - it's proper my skin tone in a bottle, the natural finish, the excellent longevity and how light it feels on the skin, I wore it on Eid and boy did the compliments roll in! I felt flawless! I really want to pick up the full size but I've made a pact with myself to finish some of my foundations off before purchasing a new one! Discipline is absolutely necessary!

A flawless base is incomplete if I don't have my Colour Correcting game going steady. My newest purchase: the MAC Prep+Prime in Peach Lustre hasn't exited my routine since I've started using it. My LA Color Pure Orange has been forgotten and is now at the back of my makeup draw. This is lightweight, a nice shade of peach/orange for my skin tone, pigmented enough, absorbs into skin fast and leaves a stain so there is less texture buildup on the skin. Working so well for me, love love love!

Soap & Glory Kick Ass Concealer in Light. The yellow shade in this cute gadgety compact makes for a really nice highlight shade, especially if my foundations oxidize a little too much for my liking. Creamy, pigmented and stays put, little goes a long way. I've been getting a lot of wear out of this, but the strange thing is the plastic compact has been breaking apart, it has broken into not 2 but 3 separate pieces! It's not like I've been rough with it, definitely can't travel with this now. The peach shade is a little ashy on my skintone for my liking so not sure how I'll use that up...?

Eyes

For my eyes I usually keep my routine simple, it's usually some eyeliner and some mascara, but recently I've changed it up a little. I start off with a matte base, to acquire this I've been using the Soap & Glory One Heck Of A Blot Powder (review here) (which has completely washed out in the top picture my bad) all over my eyelids, not only does this slightly even out my eyelids but it helps my old school creamy eye pencil last for much longer and helps any shadow I may put over blend evenly too. It's a little too matte to use on my face but it's perfect for mattefying oily eyelids!

The little brown eye pencil you can see is the NYC Chocolate Brown Eye Pencil that I've been using to death, look how small it's gotten! I have been using brown eye pencil for a good several months now, not only is the pencil formula easy to apply for an amateur eyeliner-ist but the brown shade looks oh so natural and does something rather special for my dark brown eyes, it makes them look a little bit smokey yet subtly defined! For someone who's always used black, brown is a nice change for me, I'll definitely be moving onto a much more modern long lasting formula once I'm done with this. But using this ontop of the Soap & Glory OHOAB powder and then powdering over the top too makes it last and I'm definitely using it up which makes me really really happy!

Before I apply my brown eye pencil I add a wash of Sleek Blusher in Suede over my eyelids and it looks so so pretty! It's a matte neutral/nude warm peach shade and it looks sooo lovely on the eyelids. It looks very natural and effortless but it still does something nice and makes it seem like I've made some effort with eye makeup. Doing this has got me looking at matte neutral shadows now and I'm keeping an eye out for eye shadow palettes that have a good selection of neutrals and nudes, I absolutely love how effortless matte eye shadow looks!

Cheeks

Not only have I been using Sleek Suede on my eyelids but I've been using it on my cheeks too. Look at that hitpan! It has the right amount of warmth and colour for any look, such a safe and easy shade to throw on, I loooove it to bits, I'm definitely going to repurchase this when it's done since I can't seem to stop using it!

Lips

It wouldn't be a favourites unless I had a myriad of lipsticks included and yes they're all nudes/naturals haha!

I have been reaching out for my Korres Liquid Lipsticks a lot lately, they're not actual liquid lipsticks but in fact glosses, my lips have been awfully dry for the past few months and I've been dreading applying any product over them incase it dries them out more and makes them feel even more uncomfortable, since these are quite hydrating they have been easy to wear and are pigmented enough for my hyperpigmented lips and deliciously plumping too, I've been loving these two shades...

No.30 Nude Beige is the PERFECT nude lipgloss on me, though if I'm not in the mood for nude I dab on No.25 Natural (which is a reddish pink) over 30 Nude Beige just to the centre of my lips and blend it out, on its own 25 Natural is a bit reddish and bright but the combination of these two shades is heavenly! For someone who loves matte, it's a big deal for me to use so much gloss but I'm glad I'm getting so much use out of them.

I haven't totally let go of matte lip colours! I've been loving NYX Lingerie in Ruffle Trim. I didn't like it at first, it just looked too pale and dull and the formula wasn't pleasing me either, Exotic didn't look that bad though, this I felt like sunk in to all the lines and made my lips look shrunken and shrivelled. But I've been playing around with it and experimenting too and I've found a technique that works really well and I'm obsessed with the shade!

First I make sure my lips aren't really dry, it doesn't look right on dry lips so I start off with soft lips, I then apply a face primer to my lips to smoothen out the surface and fill in lines (I think you can get lip primers that do similar things), I scrape off all the product off the lipsticks doe foot and use whatever's left on the brush. Using a thin layer is what makes this shade super wearable for me and it's beautiful, it's as if sheering it out brings out all the tones of the lipstick, it's strange but it works, it's a peachy pinky brown nude, there's also way too much product on the applicator, not a fan of the applicator obviously. Using the primer beforehand does help to make it apply and look smoother, but obviously it's not made for the lips so do test it out, though it works perfectly fine for me.

I've also been loving the Soft Matte Lip Cream in Abu Dhabi, I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to pull it off, but it's gorgeous, similar to Ruffle Trim but more on the sandy nude side and I love the formula too, makes my lips look all matte and pillowy. I've included swatches of everything in the picture above.

Brushes

H&M BB Cream Brush, bareMinerals Blurring Buffer Brush, eBay Dupe for H&M BB Cream Brush

I've left the best to the last, I can't even begin to explain to you how obsessed I have been with these brushes lately especially the ones on either side, they've replaced my beauty blender sponges completely, I haven't picked up a beauty blender sponge in yonks! Yes you've read that right, yonks!

H&M BB Cream Brush

I first saw this brush on ItsLinaMar's YouTube channel a couple of years ago around the time H&M first launched their beauty line, there was something about this brush that I knew I would love, I've seen it in action many times in her videos and I just knew it was something I needed in my life and that it would just work well for me. I kept saying to myself that I'll pick it up, I'll pick it up soon, it's not like it'll be going anywhere...But OMG it did, they discontinued it! And you know me and discontinued products...I will search for it to the ends of the world if I want it bad enough and I wanted it bad enough! Luckily I found it floating on Depop so I made it mine.

Lord all mighty...it was everything I expected it to be and more!!! I adored how well it blended my foundation out and how seamless and natural it was. It gave me coverage whilst keeping it skin like, it pushes in the makeup really well and it glides effortlessly around the face.

For a Beauty Blender devotee this is a big deal as the Beauty Blender has been shunned! It's a very dense, slanted, flat top, synthetic haired brush ( I think it's synthetic....). I can't believe how technical I've become with brushes now haha but you might as well hear it... I love the density of this brush, it works really well to push and blend product in whilst also keeping it streak free. The bristles are really really really smooth and soft (note the 'really') so it just glides around the face. I love the slant as it has the right angle and pressure against the face to push the makeup in and the slant works well for the contours of the face too. The tip of the slant works incredibly well around the nooks and crannies of the face and because it's so dense you know it's blending it all in really well! I love the medium/small size of the brush head because it means I'm in control of where I want the brush to carry product, it's just more manageable and controllable and it fits my face nicely, I don't apply a ton of foundation on my face so a big brush head would be pointless, I personally just LOVE small sized brushes for some reason! I can get really good coverage with this brush and it doesn't eat up so much product like beauty blenders do, I find beauty blenders sheer it out too much and eat lots of product. I dot my foundation around my face and blend in downward/sideward strokes on my cheeks (sideways for forehead) and do patting motions too for coverage, all of this whilst still looking flawless and natural! I am so in love with this brush, I just can't...

You may be asking yourself, why is she sharing this with us if it's discontinued? Well because I've actually found a very similar dupe! I knew owning just the one of those just wouldn't be enough for me and luckily I found a very similar brush on eBay, the design is incredibly similar if not the same as the H&M brush, it's just that the handle is a beech coloured wood where the H&M one is painted black. The brush head is also slightly smaller and it's ever so slightly less dense but it's just as smooth and soft and still gets the job done nicely, I still love it just as much!

If you're interested in picking one of these up for yourself, just type in "angled flat top brush" on eBay. You can get it for 99p if you're willing to wait for it to arrive from Hong Kong or if you're impatient like me you can pay £1.99 and get it shipped from sellers within the country.

The other brush that I've been loving is the bareMinerals Blurring Buffer Brush (pictured in the middle). Since I bough the full size bottle of Nars All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation (review here) I knew I wanted a super dense small brush to properly push this 'kinda cake prone' fluid liquidy foundation into my 'cake prone skin' and yes it's working amazingly!!! It does exactly what I hoped it would do! I use only one pump of Nars ADLW and get medium to full coverage and an invisible tint like finish. Again because I don't use a lot of product small brushes manoeuvre small amounts really well. This brush is super super dense, like SUPER dense, it's small, tight and compact, slightly rounded, this means I can really buff the product into the curves and crevices of my face, and it doesn't eat too much product either. I saw this being used as a contour brush on AlbaMayos Instagram a few weeks ago and I instantly knew this would work for me. This is actually a concealer buffing brush used for mineral powder concealer so obviously we're all using it for completely different purposes! My brain has become quite savvy in spotting brushes and figuring out their possible uses in my routine.

So there you have it guys, my recent favourites! Have you spotted anything from my sporadic selection that has sparked an interest with you? Let me know down below or share it with me on Insta! Thanks for reading. Toodles!

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, by Zahra

Bdellium

Trying out Bdellium Tools.... Review on Studio Brushes and Auto Lip Crayon

I was very fortunate enough to be sent some brushes and makeup pieces from Bdellium Tools through their Product Review Programme, I've used them a plenty since receiving and feel like I know them well enough to share my honest thoughts with everyone.

Bdellium Tools (pronounced del-ee-uhm. The "b" is silent) are a company based in California who provide makeup tools and products designed by brush experts, the brushes are custom tailored and handmade in their factory in China by skilled artisans. They have several product lines and I was sent the brushes from their Studio line. These brushes have been made with either synthetic or natural bristles, I believe the natural bristles are either Pony or Goat hair. They also have several Eco-Friendly and vegan line of brushes in a choice of 4 pretty colours. These Studio brushes are described as having professional and full sized handles and the ferrules are made of anodised aluminium. They've also recently launched their first cosmetic product which is a series of twistable Lip Crayons in an array of beautiful shades.

Love the super bright yellow!

The products I received were safely bubble wrapped and came individually packed in clear cellophane packets and the whole bundle was nicely wrapped in bright yellow tissue paper mimicking the signature yellow theme of their Studio line brushes. When I first held the brushes in my hand I straightaway noticed the feel and quality of the brushes, they felt very sturdy and solid and definitely had more weight to them than any of my other wooden handled brushes. The lacquered finish on the brushes is incredibly smooth and glossy and really makes them look and feel the part. Just from inspecting the bristles and running my fingers through them the first time I could tell these were quality and professionally made brushes without a shred of doubt and better than a lot of the brushes I already own.

Professional looking and sturdy feel

The first brush I'll review is the Studio 776 Blending Brush, $9 (just over £6). Oh I love me a good blending brush! I really do and this brush is no exception! I love the length and thickness of the barrel, so sturdy and really feels solid. The bristles are made of natural fibres and are very very soft to touch, much softer than my ELF Essential Blending Brush, they have a good balance of sturdy and swishy-ness which is important for the role of blending. The brush head is tapered and comes to a rounded point, the ferrule isn't round but is flattened a bit, so from a birds eye view the brush head looks slightly oval instead of round, I find this shape mostly useful for blending out the crease. Though blending brushes can be used for a myriad of other purposes, like blending out concealer or lightly dusting powder onto specific areas and I say you can never have enough blending brushes in your keep!

Slightly oval shaped perfect for the crease

I first done an eye look using my Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette to test out it's performance and found that it felt nice and soft on the eyelids, it really blended out the shadows smoothly and quite professionally, effortless is what came to mind. I was most definitely impressed and for a minute there this amateur eye shadow-ist felt like a pro! I always do a pinching test with new brushes where I pinch and tug at the bristles to check for shedding and there was none with this brush, none at all, I did this a few times with some definite grip but still no bristles were coming free. When I went to wash the brush after using, I swished it around in my palm with the cleanser and found the stains washed off nicely, I also kept a close eye on it whilst washing and did notice one bent-ish bristle snap off, just the one though but other than that I haven't noticed any other form of shedding which is excellent as I've always had brushes shed whilst using and washing. This has happily replaced my ELF Blending Brush for sure and I can see myself reaching for this quite a lot from now on.

Another brush that I received is the Studio 936 Concealer Brush, $9 (just over £6) . This brush is also made with soft natural bristles. It's a thin and flat brush and the bristles on this brush feel very smooth and soft yet firm at the same time. Again I carried out the pinch test and found no bristles came out whatsoever, even after washing. I've been using this with my Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer and have been loving it! Since I don't apply tons of product anyway, the size of this has been absolutely perfect for my under eye circles and the odd blemishes I want to conceal, I find the bareMinerals concealer brush that I was using to be a little too big and I end up using more product and getting it where I don't need it. I apply a small amount under each eye and pat and blend it in, I find the amount of sturdiness really blends and moves the product well when I want to cover small imperfections around my face and the flat side really pushes and pats the concealer into place.

The bristles are very smooth and soft

This is how thin the concealer brush is on the side

I've also used this to apply eyeshadow onto my eyelids for the main lid colour and it's worked very well, I adore how smooth it feels on the eyelids, the swishy-ness at the tips really glides on softly and smoothly across the lid and applies the shadow on nicely. As it's quite a thin brush this won't pick up and deposit a lot of shadow but you can build up and pack on the colour as you wish, overall this works perfectly fine for me.

Nice rigid bristles to comb out unwanted clumps

The last brush in the selection is the Studio 733 Lash Brush, $8 ( just over £5). Made of synthetic fibres, this quality spoolie is ideal to use through your brows and lashes. Apart from combing through and taming my naturally bushy tails (brows) I use this mainly for brushing through my lashes to get rid of mascara clumps, to separate my lashes and to fan them out for a more volumised, yet natural and wispy look. If you know me then you'll know I'm fussy when it comes to my mascaras. My lashes are long but thin so they're very prone to clumpiness, I hate it when mascaras clump on me and bunch my lashes together and make them look sparse and minimised instead of volumised. This happens a lot when the beauty-holic in me purchases new mascaras to try, more often than not the brush or formula isn't the most perfect option for me and they'll clump up on my lashes, so I'm forced to go in with a separate -preferably clean- mascara wand to try and comb out the clumps, but the wands just haven't had the right amount of stiffness.

This spoolie however is exactly what I need, it's stiff enough to brush through the clumps and it fans out my lashes perfectly. I've had spoolie's before but they've either come off the handle, ferrule and all or they've not had the right firmness to break up the clumps, this has been working a charm for me and I know the ferrule won't be coming off anytime soon, if ever! It's a solid spoolie and everyone needs a spoolie in their lives to achieve a professional and beautiful finish to their lashes and it's definitely gotta be a quality one like this one.

Simple and sleek packaging

The last product I received was a makeup product, specifically they're Auto Lip Crayon, in the shade "In the Nude". Oh my this was a treat! Everyone and their mum knows I'm a vehement lipstick junkie so this was right up my aisle, not only that but the fact that it was a nude shade had me overly thrilled! I know my lipsticks, I've worn and owned a heck of a lot so I can tell when certain formulas are quality formulas, the way they apply on to the lips, the finish, the colour pay off and comfortability are all indicators at how specific the formulas intricacies are and how meticulously it has been put together and this product definitely fits the bill.

Twist up tube

At 1.5g and containing natural, nourishing and hydrating ingredients like shea butter, the lip crayon glides smoothly on to my lips, it's beautifully pigmented, the colour pay off is great and it covers the hyper-pigmentation on my lips really well making my lips look full and perfected. This actually feels really nourishing and super comfortable on. It's a satin/matte finish and smoothens the surface of my lips nicely. I do prefer matte-er finishes but I appreciate the quality and really like the formula of this product, it's so buttery smooth and has plenty of colour concentration and it doesn't have that cheap slippey/slidey texture that some drugstore lipsticks can have, so this does last a decent time especially after I set it with some powder. It's also paraben and perfume free for those that have issues in that department. The packaging is simple, sturdy and effective with the convenient twist up mechanism. Applying this is a dream, I can easily line my lips with the pointed tip and fill them in at the same time, easy peasy!

Bdellium Tools Auto Lip Pencil in "In the Nude"

Swatched in sunlight to show off its' pretty nude tones

The shade is quite a pale nude on my tanned NC35 - ish South Asian (hyperpigmented around the mouth) skin tone and this shade is not something I can pull off on it's own at all, I think people with NC30 skin tones and under can wear this without any additional help but it's actually a wonderful shade for mixing. I've had my eye on MAC's Honeylove for a while as it's a really pale nude shade that looks amazing on tanned skin when mixed with other lipsticks or with certain lip liners underneath, so I was very happy to use this lip crayon mixed with other products and I've created some stunning combinations, this actually layers really beautifully! One of my favourite combos is Jordana's Nutmeg which is a deep reddish brown lipliner and with "In the Nude" on top it turns into a wonderful gorgeous dusky pink nude that makes my lips look fuller, then I pat on some Soap & Glory Kick Ass Powder and it's matte perfection, full, pouty, nude lips, me loves!

Swatched partially on top of Jordana Nutmeg Lip Liner

One layer swatched completely over the Lip Liner

I love the formula of these Lip Crayons and want to get my hands on more of the shades, particularly the one called "Helen of Troy" which is an everyday mauvey pink colour and another called "Sinister Rouge" which is a deep berry shade. At $10.00 (which is just under £7) these are very affordable and offer excellent quality for the price.

I am so chuffed at receiving these great brushes and the Lip Crayon, I really am so pleased to have them in my stash as they're just such great affordable and reliable quality brushes. I've seen Desi Perkins use Bdellium Tools on her channel and if a professional like Desi gives these her stamp of approval then they're definitely worth it, you can take Desi's word as well as mine! I don't have any qualms or negatives to say apart from the fact that these beautiful goodies are on the other side of the pond from us here in the UK! Which is really just me having a comical moan because they're offering free International Standard Shipping if you spend over $20 and topped with the amazing 25% off New Years offer they have going on currently, NOW is a great time to fulfil your makeup brush wishlist! Just enter NEWYEARS25 in the discount box when you checkout. Hurry because the offer ends at 01/01/2016 at 11:59pm PST. (PST is -8 hours from BST. E.g. If it's midnight in the UK then it's 4pm in PST.)

I want to thank Bdellium Tools for sending me these brushes as well as Sal from www.UmmBaby.blogspot.co.uk for giving me the heads up, it's very much appreciated. I've attached links to each respective product so have a browse if you need more information on Bdellium Tools and their other products.

*As mentioned in the beginning of this review, these products were sent to me for review purposes through the Bdellium Review Programme, though, I can promise you that you will always, as per usual, have my honest thoughts and opinions in all my reviews. I am immensely grateful and rather overwhelmed that these products were sent to me even though I deem myself a small beauty blogger and have this teeny tiny space on the in'ernet. Thank you for taking your time to read this review!

Love & Peace everyone!

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, by Zahra

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Products I've Been Loving Recently

Trying out Bdellium Tools.... Review on Studio Brushes and Auto Lip Crayon